Shailene Woodley takes the cover of this week’s issue of The Hollywood Reporter. She’s promoting her role as Tris in Divergent. The first time I really noticed Shailene was when she showed up to support The Descendantsat the 2012 Oscar ceremony. At the time, she insisted that acting wasn’t her thing and that she was studying to be an herbalist. Make no mistake that acting is her “thing,” but she’s also very serious in her obsession with nature. Kaiser has covered all sorts of granola-crunching interviews where Shailene talks about adapting to an indigenous lifestyle and gathering her own spring water every month. All of that sounds perfectly exhausting. I admire Shailene’s effort to live her own way, and she’s certainly not hurting anyone.

What I do take issue with is that Summit Entertainment (the same studio behind Twilight) is trying to fashion Shailene as the next Jennifer Lawrence. The Hollywood Reporter piece sounds straight out of a PR person’s mouth: “It’s that unique accessibility — both onscreen and off — coupled with raw acting talent that has made Woodley one of the most hyped starlets since Jennifer Lawrence prepared to launch The Hunger Games franchise two years ago.” Hmm … accessible? Not in all those interviews. The mag insists that JLaw and Shailene’s “career trajectories are similar” because they both did indie films before moving on to YA franchises. Oh, and they both got short haircuts last year! I added that last detail for fun. Here are some interview excerpts:

She hesitated to do Divergent: “Having come off a TV show, I was kind of in the place where I was like, ‘I’m never signing a contract for more than one movie,’ because once you do sign a contract, legally, you’re liable. [Even] if you don’t find something creatively stimulating anymore, you’ve still got to do it legally.”

She lost I Am Sam to Dakota Fanning: “My dad pulled me aside, and he said: ‘Shai, what are you doing? You have so much anger, and you’re feeling so let down by the fact that you didn’t book [this]. I want you to close your eyes right now and picture this Dakota girl, and I want you to send her so much love and so much light because one day you’re going to book something that you really want, and you’re not going to want all of the girls around you that you competed against to feel anger against you. You’re going to want them to support you on your journey. And so it’s your turn right now to support Dakota on her journey.’ And so I did that.”

She only wears second-hand clothing: “Kitson? Yeah, that’ll never happen. I exclusively buy used clothes,” she says, referring to the Robertson Boulevard boutique favored by attention-starved “stars.” “I’m going to be a citizen of this planet, and I’m going to do my responsibility and live in stride with nature instead of constantly fighting against her.”

She makes an exception for red carpets: “I realized this garment is going to be used over and over and over again. If I was to show up wearing my five-toe shoes, my Melodia organic leggings and some hippie top, no one is going to take me seriously, and I probably would not be doing this interview right now for The Hollywood Reporter. When I go on a red carpet, I’m Shailene, but I’m also Shailene representing a movie. I’m there for my boss, for my employer, so part of that comes with wearing the uniform.”

Her Navajo pendant:“It’s my way of just recognizing spirit — as hippie as that may sound — in an industry where sometimes materialism is the main focus, it’s kind of my way of grounding and remembering what’s important to me. My religion is the Earth, man. I believe in trees.”

Nudity is cool: “When somebody’s doing a sex scene and they’re wearing a bra and underwear, that’s not how it happens in real life. If I’m going to say yes to a movie where this is necessary, then I’m going to bring truth to that situation.”

Is she in a relationship? “I fall in love with human beings based on who they are, not based on what they do or what sex they are.”

Oh, the pressure: “I made five movies in the past year and two months and finished a TV show during that time. The second your boss or somebody whom you really respect comes to you and says, ‘I can’t wait to see what you do next,’ there instantly becomes this new pressure of, ‘Wow, am I creating art for myself or am I suddenly creating art for other people?”

The magazine does concede that Divergent could flop, which is possible considering how many fans were upset by the third book’s ending. Then Shailene could be the next Lily Collins. I really don’t see the comparison between Shailene and JLaw’s personalities. One is sort of a hippie Goop who makes her own medicine and soap, and the other likes to chow down on Philly cheese steak while watching reality television. These two young women are nothing alike as far as I see. Similar career trajectories mean nothing, and they’ll mean even less after Divergent fails to score big at the box office. Deadline predicts a $50-60 million opening weekend, which is far less than Hunger Games$150 million opening take. We’ll see how this plays out in a few weeks.

Comments are Closed

No. Just, no. I think divergent will be successful, but in no way is Shayshay going to be Jennifer. She’s a decent actress though, and I hope the best for her, but I only think of her as a step up from Kristen Stewart…as I also think divergent is just a step up from twilight (and I’m thinking divergent will be more like the next twilight, not the next hunger games)

I agree, she is a decent actress but she’s not in JLaw’s league. I read the Divergent series and it’s true that it’s a sort of in-between with Twilight and Hunger Games…I didn’t love the books either, so I’d be very surprised if this becomes a mega franchise.

Yeah. This is more like “Shailene Woodley’s overzealous publicist called her “the next Jennifer Lawrence” and the HR ran with it probably as a favor to some honcho.” That’s the problem with making bald pronouncements like this – they’re transparent and no one buys them.

I’m thinking a little less than twilight, but not a flop like TMI and beautiful creatures. Marketing has been quite aggressive, and fandango sales are about on par with twilight so far (according to boxofficemojo)…it won’t flop hard, but if it’s a bleh movie with bad word of mouth, then I don’t think it’ll hold up long and the sequel probably won’t see the sane boost that new moon saw (I’ve been thinking about this way too much, I know lol)

I can’t respond to Crank but I also think little less than Twilight is likely. But Twilight made a great deal of money, there is no shama of not crazy Hunger Games numbers. If Hunger Games had not been made Deivergent would sound much more original and the Twilight comparisons very impressive. Now it however comes across a bit like a Hunger Games rip-off.

I have not read the books but I a fan of some young adult book series that could get a change to get made if this does well so I am hoping for that. It is also nice to see a blockbuster staring a woman, this could help prove that the success of Hunger Games was not a fluke and people are willing to see movies with female leads. But I feel Divergent is going to be Mortal Istruments and Twilight level of quality, hopefully not.

Look at the money they spent on The Golden Compass and how good the source YA was in comparison to Twilight, Hunger Games and Divergent – huge flop and the sequel not even made.

I’m thinking the next big YA adaptation will go more sci-fi than dystopia (perhaps one of those artificial consciousness ones like Slated or Skinned). There might be room for a better urban fantasy franchise. Aren’t they making Women of the Otherworld into a TV series? That had a YA offshoot.

Since the Walking Dead has done so well, perhaps a series of that revenge western-come-zombie series would also be a money spinner? Rot and Ruin.

Sorry to double post, but another thing is that they are trying WAY to hard to turn Shayshay into something. They didn’t ‘try hard’ with Jennifer, people just naturally loved her and she could stand on her own. With this, they are just annoyingly pushing Shayshay out there as the next big ‘thing’.

Agree with both your posts Crank, this chick is only slightly better than K-Stew and that’s not much. And yup, they’re definitely pushing her to be the next big thing but she’s really not that outstanding as an actress.

Agree that they are trying way too hard. The short haircut seems an especially desperate move. And it seems fitting that it’s this film they are trying too hard to push because as I read Divergent I couldn’t stop thinking that the author was trying way too hard to be the next Hunger Games. Yuck.

Migdalia, Glad to hear the haircut was for a reason other than trying to emulate JLaw. Although I just read The Fault in Our Stars and I could swear the main character had long hair. Maybe that’s just how I pictured her. In any case I hope that film does the book justice, it was heartbreaking and genuine.

@mark: nope, she didn’t. She was already an established actress with winters bone and she wasn’t ‘pushed’ out by lionsgate and marketed as the next big thing. Once hunger games came out, she became quite big but it was because she is a great actress and nailed the part of Katniss. Shayshay has had acting experiences, but many people would agree she’s really nothing special. It’s quite obvious that they are trying to make her Jennifer Lawrence. Even Divergent is quite a hunger games knock off. Either way, I do think she’s talented and much better than other wannabes, but she’s trying way too hard and I unfortunately blame the studio for pushing the JLaw/Shayshay comparisons.

Again, I don’t think Shayshay is that bad, but I want people to just discover her through good reviews and word of mouth, not by being pushed out and compared to other greats. I think she’s doing her job, and I wouldn’t mind the interviews if it wasn’t for magazines dubbing her as the next Jennifer. I actually like this interview, especially what she says about wearing clothes for a premiere. She seems well grounded, smart, and does her job. I’m mostly blaming the studios and magazines.

Replying to Esmom:
I couldn’t stop comparing the Divergent books to The Hunger Games series either (although I preferred Tris to Katniss, I thought the Divergent serious was lacking and nowhere near as compelling as THG) but I read somewhere that the author started writing the novel before the Hunger Games was published. I don’t know how much of a hit it will be (I will see it) but I’d like the sequels to at least be made. The Beautiful Creatures series was cheesy, but I found it entertaining and the film completely crushed any chances for the sequels to be made, it was so awful and not true to the novel at all.

I will be surprised if this movie makes even decent money, let alone becomes a huge hit. I’m in the target audience, and I couldn’t even (and didn’t want to) make it through the trailer. I’ve seen way too many of these movies–they’re saturating the market, and I’m just not even interested any more.

Annoying? Yeah a little. But I also think that she’s totally genuine and truly believes in all that hippie nonsense.
I rolled my eyes so hard at this: “My religion is the Earth, man. I believe in trees” but then I remember she’s still young and like all young people, she’s likely to say a lot of dumb and cringe-worthy things.

Nonsense? I don’t know who intends to protect the Earth if it’s not us, the humans. I appreciate people like her. She’s actually concerned and aware and acting positively towards protecting the environment and looking for cleaner and healthier ways to do things. We need more Shailene’s, not less. I don’t think her way of thinking and acting is nonsense at all.

I wasn’t talking about sustainable development or carbon imprint or any of that. I’m as green as they come: I recycle, don’t own a car, use my bicycle all the time. It’s about how she approaches it: “religion of the Earth”, good vibes, all that new age stuff. That’s what I call hippie nonsense. Not about protecting the environment, which is indeed crucial. You can be green and care about the planet without spouting nonsense. But she’s young so hopefully she’ll grow out of it.

Lol me too. It won’t be a bit. I think the third book ruined many fans enjoyment of the series so they all feel why bother about it now. TMI flopped too which I wonder if this will make studios more cautious about turning YA into movies now.

If I read this interview before I saw her in The Spectacular Now, I wouldn’t like her. I do like her though. She did so well in that movie and I felt like I could relate to her. I actually think she’s a better actress than Jennifer Lawrence.

I like her acting than Jlaw. Her performance in Descendants was unforgettable. Jlaw has this tendency to play that tough, crazy, screaming lady everytime. But Jlaw is just irresistible to watch onscreen. There’s this depressing side to Shailene, like she’s the female Sean Penn.

Yes, I loved her in The Descendants and think she’s a better actress than Jennifer. They do tend to play slightly different ‘types’ so it might not be fair to compare, but Shailene is more compelling– her acting is layered and subtle where Jennifer’s is sort of… one-note intense.

I disagree. I liked Shailene a lot in The Descendants, she was really good in it. I didn’t like her in the trailer for Divergent, I hope she doesn’t ruin the film (for me). Overall I think Jennifer is a much better actress.

JLaw was amazing in Winter’s Bone, but everything I have seen her in after that has been a let down. She comes across unnatural, kind of like watching someone at theater rehearsals.

Shailene is great on film because she provokes real emotion from the viewer; she is very natural and subtle which is key for film work IMO. I prefer her public personality to JLaw’s as I am a little hippy dippy also.

Regardless, Hollywood is big enough for both of them. Shailene, go back to long hair, you were gorgeous in The Descendants.

I hate that they always do this to female actresses. So and so is the next “Jennifer Lawrence” or “Julia Roberts” or “Angelina Jolie.” They rarely, if ever, do this to male actors. Rant out of the way

First of all, I read the article and that Lily Collins quip was a mean burn. Secondly, Shailene is a decent actress and I find her hippie girl, mother nature schtick kind of endearing—but I have a feeling the general public isn’t going to feel the same way after she lectures on the millionth time about foraging for fruit (I have a feeling they are going to view her as condescending a la vegan Natalie Portman). Lastly, I’m not sure Shailene’s willing to play the PR game or is even able to play it as well as Jennifer (I like Jennifer, Jen stans, but I do think she “plays” up certain aspects of her personality because she is incredibly PR savvy as well as being a good actress).

How can you tell if someone is a vegan? Don’t worry – they’ll tell you! I don’t think she’s going to be able to help herself from preaching the gospel and it is eventually going to grate on people.

And she doesn’t want to sign multi-movie contracts because, “[Even] if you don’t find something creatively stimulating anymore, you’ve still got to do it legally.” Spot the girl who has the luxury of never having had to do a proper job.

See I like Shailene, but I knew a lot of people were going to see her a “Granola Goop” as you described her….which literally made me lmao even though I like her as an actress. Maybe I have a soft spot for hippies, since I went to a majorly hippie liberal arts college full of people like her.

Haha @Algernon and Crank about Crossfit. The father of one of my daughter’s friends does Crossfit, and it’s his entire life outside of work. He goes in the morning before work and in the evenings afterwards. He also goes to competitions on the weekends monthly and apparently he and his wife only socialize with other Crossfit couples. I took my daughter to this girl’s birthday party and more than half the people there were introduced to me as so and so from Crossfit. I think like being a Vegan, it becomes a lifestyle so you have to surround yourself with those with a similar mindset.

Two completely different people. Both talented, but with different strengths. Jennifer is better overall, but Shailene is the only actress nipping at her heels, imo. The other “it” girl of the last five years have turned out to be major duds.

They are really really really trying to make her happen. I’ve read interviews about behind the scenes of Divergent and everyone in the cast/crew keeps saying how ” Shailene is going to be a huge f*ing star”, It’s completely off putting.

They are doing the same to Theo James. I read the article EW has about Divergent and there is big, whole section of it about what a big star he’s going to be.
I can’t say that I’ve seen Shailene in anything to judge her as an actress…but can she just be the next Shailene and not the next anybody else? I don’t think Theo James is that special nor do I think Miles Teller is either. I saw the previews for Divergent (haven’t read the books) and I think the movie looks awful, honestly.
I did not know Summit was behind this one. They are totally going to Twilight their cast. By the end of the movies, no matter how talented these people turn out to be, I’m going to be sick of hearing about them.

@esmom I’ve been thinking that because the director was talking about their sexual chemistry a lot and that it’s on and off camera. I think they are just trying to get some twilight type fans invested lol

I have not read the books either and I agree the movies does not look any good. I saw comments on another site where people had already seen it and they said as much. The movie was well made but everything else was a mess. This makes me even less interested in seeing the film.

Aside from some generic similarities, I don’t see it. She’ll probably do well but I don’t think she has the same spark as Jen.
Of course she doesn’t buy new clothes- she can just name drop some in an interview and get them sent to her for free! I feel like her hippie granola thing is exaggerated for publicity.

I actually don’t think she is playing up her hippie granola act – for now anyway. I have J-Law the benefit of the doubt for a few years on her awe shucks routine so I am giving Shailane one too. I think she is a young woman with strong beliefs about the planet and a desire to live in harmony with nature but she is in a career that is taking her away from that and she probably likes acting and so is in conflict with herself so she is constantly mentioning her beliefs in interviews to justify her actions. I think as she matures she will find a happy balance. At least I hope she does.

I also hate when they compare an actress to another one. It immediately sets up everyone’s hackles and does the actress no favors.

Agree. I wasn’t very articulate in my previous post, in which I was saying while I like Shailene I don’t think she’s going to be the next “America’s Sweetheart” type because I’m not sure the general public will view certain things the same way…..But it BUGS me that they never do this to men. It’s always with women, and they don’t acknowledge the fact that there are enough spots for all of them. They always try to pit women together in competition, be it in a more subtle way or a blatant way, and it seriously bugs.

I don’t know if I’d say Divergent is exactly Shakespeare in comparison, really it’s just a slight step above the insufferable trash that was Twilight. Although I have to say I didn’t hate the first Twilight book. But it was all downhill from there, big time.

Twilight was the only movie I could stand to watch out of the entire franchise. By the time New Moon came out, I was over the entire series. The only other movie I’ve seen (the majority of it, because my sister watched it) was BD P. 1/

Actually, both of them sound exhausting to be around. Jennifer seems okay for just a few minutes but her over the top, attention grabbing personality seems exhausting too and I feel like Shailene would judge the hell out of whoever does something that goes against her values.

Yeah, I was wondering how long it would take for us to need a “new” J Law. I’ve seen Shailene in “The Descendants” and “The spectacular Now”, and she was so much better in the first. Why aren’t we talking about the push to make Miles Tiller(?) happen? I’ve only seen him in SN, but thought he was pretty lame in that.

Re BO- I realize that Twilight here is regarded as less than nuclear waste, but it sold tix. I think Divergent would be thrilled with T’s BO numbers for its opening weekend. I am torn about seeing it in theater tho- do you think it helps to have read the book first? Never pulled the trigger on TMI or VA- and enjoyed the books in those series that I read, tho never finished either series.

I thought both main actors in The Spectacular Now were great. I felt like I was watching real people, not a movie. Whenever I watch Jennifer Lawrence act, I think she’s good but I never believe she’s actually that character.

Lol. Shailene wishes she was on the same career trajectory as Jennifer Lawrence. I don’t believe she has the talent, likeability or marketability to come even close. Starring in a YA franchise does not a huge star make. See: Lily Collins.

I cannot get behind this girl, no matter how hard her PR people are trying. She comes across as obnoxious and condescending in every interview, and she’s the least memorable performance in everything I’ve seen her in – even that craptacular television show Secret Life of the American whatever.

Speaking of “hot new starlets” of yore, Molly Ringwald, my kids and I have been making our way through all of the John Hughes movies and I had forgotten how utterly horrible her acting was/is. In Pretty in Pink she shows almost no inflections, her line delivery is the flattest ever. I could do a better job with zero experience or training. I was mortified for her. My kids were like “SHE was the big new thing in the 80s? She sucks.”

I TRIED to watch The Secret Life of an American Teenager. I tried to–really hard. I thought that it had the makings of a really good show, especially with its dealings with teenage pregnancy. But it was SO boring…I skipped through three episodes, and when she still hadn’t told her mom that she was pregnant, I timed out. I mean, how long does it take? And it wasn’t entertaining or dramatic–not as much as they thought it was.

As a fan of both, I HATE it when they compare her to Jen. They’re completely different and it’s unfair to both of them. As for Divergent, there have been several early screenings this week and the reviews so far are EXCELLENT. So yeah, it’s definitely not another TMI/Lily Collins situation.

I like her personality, but seriously dislike her projects. Her show sucked and the divergent series wasn’t written well at all. Ya the trilogy ended poorly and the third book was a snowstorm of all kinds of awful.

As an actress the only thing I’ve seen her in is The Descendants and I liked her in that. Divergent I’m mildly interested in but the movie of hers I’m really waiting for is TFIOS.
As for the hippie thing, it doesn’t feel as if she’s pushing it down my throat so…meh; her life, her choices. She also seems to have a good handle on what’s done for work and what she does in her personal life. No shade from me.

she was excellent in The Spectacular Now (GREAT movie, if you haven’t seen it) and her lifestyle is clearly very alternative, nothing wrong with that. I like what she had to say about fashion as well, about being professional.

I caught that right away. My guess is she’s trying to come across as open minded free-love hippie. Doubt she really is bisexual. For sure we will NEVER ever see her dating a woman. She will end up “falling in love” with Theo James to hype up their new franchise.

Love how she claims to have been concerned about doing a franchise with repeating the same character and artistry going down. Girlfriend also signed up for the Spider-Man franchise as well as Divergent. Then signed up for The Fault in our Stars a film that sold a lot of books and predicted to do well at the Box office. I see through all the hippie B.S. to a girl that is fame hungry. Nothing wrong with wanting fame but be honest about it.

Nope, nope, nope, nope and nope. Who is running this girl’s press game? This was annoying a year or two ago when they had her talk about “emailing” Jlaw to ask about what it was like to be a YA star since Shai had just booked divergent and it is annoying now. It might just be me, but I just find this positioning to be so unbearable. whenever some PR team decides to trot it out. It’s an issue when someone’s resume/personality can’t seem to make a statement without hitching their star to someone’s wagon. If they were smart, they would keep reminding people that she was (good?) in the Descendents and start having her drop fame lessons that George Clooney “gave” her. This prediction of success thing just rarely works out.

I like her a lot. She is naturally pretty, very talented, and her own person. Not “fake” or shallow. I will always admire outspoken women who march to the beat of their own drummer. There is plenty of room for both her and Jennifer Lawrence.

I don’t know anything about her, but I didn’t like Divergent and I think it’s a waste of time that they’re making a movie out of a lazily-written third-class boring book.
Then again, they made Twilight, what am I saying….

Good lord this chick lacks any kind of charisma. I don’t know why Hollywood is trying to make her a ‘thing’. I may not be a raving JLawstan, but at least I can see that JLaw has that ‘it’ factor and has charisma.

I read all three books and while I enjoyed the first two, the third one disappointed me. It had nothing to do with the ending (which quite honestly I think was done for shock value than anything else) but with the idiotic storyline that got way too complicated. There were too many characters to keep track of and way too many action scenes one after the other–I just felt like the characters were running around with guns constantly. Not to mention the awful POV of both Tris and Four in the 3rd book. I could not tell their POV’s apart because they were written in the exact same voice. So I would be reading Four’s POV and get confused because I would think I would be reading Tris’s when all of a sudden Tris would be referred to in the 3rd person. Veronica Roth wrote her books while The Hunger Games books were getting a lot of noise and I have no doubt she was inspired by that trilogy to write her own.

The trailer does nothing for me, but I am curious to see how they will adapt the book to the screen.

Oh, good grief. I find Shailene a little annoying (I like my actors twee…my actresses not quite so much), but it’s ridiculous to paint her as the new J-Law. We don’t need a new J-Law. There’s plenty of need for young actresses who have both talent and personality, and we certainly don’t need them to all come out of the same mold.

I think Shai has some real talent. I really liked Spectacular Now and The Fault in Our Stars is one of my favorite books, so I am looking forward to that. I have read Hunger Games series, Divergent series and Twilight series and I didn’t love Divergent. It was ok, but I will probably see it. I really hope they didn’t screw up TFioS

I have seen Divergent in an early screening, and seriously, it’s really good. I saw it with friends from a variety of ages (12-50), male and female, people who had read the book and people who hadn’t (including me) and we all liked it. There were a few minor flaws but I highly recommend seeing it overall. Shailene did a great job, so did Theo and Kate Winslet. Background about me: liked Hunger Games (2nd more than the 1st), didn’t like Twilight, meh on Mortal Instruments, Host, Beautiful Creatures. This one is def better than those movies, on par w/ Hunger Games.